Gina's medical fund

We are gathering together to help Gina through a rough patch on her journey via the Scenic Route, as she has very recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She will need surgery (date as yet to be determined) and also chemo and possibly radiation as well.  We are reaching out because Gina has given so much to so many people, as a fine musician and composer, and now she needs our support so that she can take financial worries off her plate while she is going through treatment and recovery.


For those of you who do not already know Gina's work, Gina Leishman is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and performer, British born but resident in the US since seemingly forever, having fled the goldfish bowl of Old Europe. She composes for theater, opera, dance, film, television and concert stage, garnering numerous awards. Collaborations with other artists include directors Karin Coonrod, Robert Woodruff and David Gordon, writers Ellen McLaughlin, Tony Kushner and Naomi Wallace, choreographers Bebe Miller and Deborah Slater, composer Doug Wieselman, and performance artists Rinde Eckert and John Kelly. She leads or co-leads various ensembles, including her long-standing septet Kamikaze Ground Crew, a vehicle for original composition; Mr. Wau-Wa, a quintet dedicated to the songs of Bertolt Brecht; and the In My Skin Quartet and Baseless Rumors, both dedicated to the Leishman Songbook. Recordings are available on Koch Jazz, New World Records, Busmeat and GCQ Records. She is also an award-winning narrator of audio-books.

We will be using the funds raised through this campaign to directly help Gina with her monthly expenses, and also make it possible for her to do things which are not always covered by medicare, alternative healing such as acupuncture, for example, and never stinting on organic foods!  Most of all, we want her to be able to focus on her health and not have the anxiety of monthly bills weighing down her generous and beautiful heart.

Gina lives very simply, and living in Westbeth is a help, but she does urgently need our help now, and I very much hope that you will give as much as you can, and share this fund with others who either know Gina and have been touched by her and her work, or are simply willing to help an extraordinary musician and composer who has supported herself through her art for so many years, and now has a tall mountain to climb.

We are doing this for Gina because we love her, and we know that any and all help you can give, in any amount, will ease her burden and help her get through this hard time.  Gina will be so grateful, and we will all be so grateful when she is out the other side, and can return to making music and performing, as she was born to do.

Thank you all so much for anything you can do to contribute to this medical fund.

Please go to Gina's website:  http://ginaleishman.com/ginaleishman/home_1.html

to hear some of her beautiful music and read some of the blogs she has been sharing with gorgeous photos.

Gina is our treasure, and we already treasure you for helping out.

Many, many thanks,

Beka (dear friend) and Pesha (my daughter and Gina's goddaughter)